ERA13LA382 · Consolidated Aeronautics Inc LAKE MODEL 250
Consolidated Aeronautics Inc LAKE MODEL 250 · Accident: loss of engine power (total) during initial climb
From Saratoga County Airport (5B2) to Indian Lake, NY (no airport)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA13LA382
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Consolidated Aeronautics Inc LAKE MODEL 250
- Aircraft type
- Consolidated Aeronautics LAKE MODEL 250
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N522WB
- Operator
- William R. Booth · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Saratoga County Airport (5B2), Saratoga Springs, NYTo Indian Lake, NY (no airport)
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Initial climb
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of engine power (total)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that, shortly after takeoff, the engine experienced uncommanded rpm changes, so he turned the airplane to return to the departure airport. He then heard a "loud bang" and the engine running roughly, and it subsequently lost power. When the pilot realized that he would be unable to land at the airport, he maneuvered the airplane for a gear-up forced landing in a field. With only 1/4 of the length of the field remaining, he intentionally yawed the airplane right to avoid obstructions ahead; the airplane came to rest upright with the engine displaced to the left. Oil was covering the engine pylon, the top portion of the empennage, and the leading edges of the vertical and horizontal stabilizers.
Postaccident examination of the engine revealed a hole in the crankcase adjacent to the No. 6 cylinder. The No. 6 cylinder connecting rod was fractured and separated from the crankshaft, and one nut from the No. 6 cylinder connecting rod bolt was not present and was found inside the oil sump. Metallurgical examination of the components of the No. 6 cylinder connecting rod revealed that the connecting rod was fractured through one side of the strap at the crankshaft end of the connecting rod and that the strap segment on the other side of the connecting rod was deformed inward. The fractured strap exhibited fatigue cracks from multiple origins, and the split line face on the deformed segment of the strap exhibited fretting damage. The connecting rod likely fractured due to insufficient clamping force across the split line at the crankshaft end of the connecting rod. Although the No. 6 cylinder had been removed about 110 hours before the accident flight, the work performed at that time was not associated with the No. 6 cylinder connecting rod. Therefore, given that the engine was overhauled only about 153 hours before the accident flight, it is likely that insufficient torque was applied to the connecting rod nut during the overhaul.
Probable cause
Maintenance personnel’s application of insufficient torque to the No. 6 cylinder connecting rod bolts during overhaul, which resulted in the fatigue fracture of the connecting rod and a subsequent total loss of engine power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA13LA382
- Event ID
- 20130827X84031
- Case number
- ERA13LA382
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 71ce9d6777c3c6ab51040bcc82e8b82200ff52781d1ca0639931fb7153859374; retrieved 2026-09-15T22:38:48.449Z.